Omniweb Version 5.7
Company: The Omnigroup
www.omnigroup.com
Price: $14.95 for license. Licenses may be used in one of three ways. See publisher’s website for detailed information on licensing. Product may be purchased through download, or in a boxed / CD package.
“What? You paid for a browser? Ha-Ha, Ho-Ho, Hee-Hee!!”
Folks, that is a general description of the reaction you may get from your uh, associates, when you mention that you paid the tidy sum of $14.95 for a web browser, in this world of free browsers. More on that in a bit. Omniweb is a very powerful, full-featured browser for the Mac platform. It is produced by the Omnigroup, of Seattle Washington. The Omnigroup is a company that has been with us since the days of NeXt, so they’re a long-time developer of Mac applications.
Omniweb is totally native to Mac OS X. I’ve been using it as my primary browser for the past year. During this time, I have grown to like it an awful lot. It has proven to be very fast and stable, with only two crashes in the last twelve months. The overall look of the application is pure OS X. I like this. Applications that have the cross-platform “ported from another OS” look tend to make me go “Ugh”, but that’s just me. If it doesn’t bother you, well, good for you. Now, some bullet points:
• Speed: I’m running this on my own Mac, which is a five year old, 867 MhZ Ti powerbook, with 1 Gigabyte of installed RAM. My OS is OS X, version 10.4.11. Omniweb launches fast and has a lot of “snap” to it. This is something I find somewhat lacking in Firefox, and other “ported over” browsers. Websites load very fast in Omniweb, and render beautifully.
• Stability: Two crashes in a year of day-to-day use. I call that pretty stable. On those rare occasions when crashes happen, you’ll see a “bomb box”, along with buttons that give you the option of sending a crash report to Omnigroup. It’s a good idea to take this option. I do believe it helps the engineers track down potential problems.
• Pop-up blocking. This browser has what has got to be the most powerful pop-up blocking available. Okay, so other browsers have pop-up blocking. So what? Well, Omniweb’s works, and it works well. When using Safari, I had always noticed that some pop-ups made it past the pop-up blocker. On occasion, there would be pop-unders (an ad window, below your main window) as well. This brings me to one of my favorite features: You can set your pop-up and ad blocking preferences in the main preference panel, same as other browsers. But, you may also customize these settings for each individual site you visit. I find this to be highly useful. At each website, you may simply click the toggle switch in the upper right corner of the application window,(or, choose “show site preferences” from the application menu) and the site preference pane will open at the bottom of the application window. This is what it looks like:
Here, you can see that I have chosen to always block pop-ups, and to block images and inline content from known ad sites. Another great tool is the ability to limit the number of times an animation plays. That’s great, because I have had enough of the “dancing bears”, and other needless visual distractions that seem to be all over the web. And no, I do not want to create my own Zwinky, whatever that is. Again, you may customize these settings for each site you visit. That is a powerful feature. All of this is built right into the application. There is no need for third-party add-ons or extensions that could cause a browser to misbehave.
• Tabbed Browsing: Where would we be without tabbed browsing? I don’t know, but there would surely be a lot of screaming and yelling. To be fair, Omniweb’s version of tabbed browsing does take some getting used to. Instead of a row of tabs across your navigation bar, the tabs are kept in a slide-out drawer. You set the draw to open on the left or right side of the window. The “tabs” in omniweb appear as little thumbnails of web pages. This is an example:
Here, I only have three pages open, but I frequently have filled up with lot more. You may also set the tabs to appear as single lines of text. This is good if you cruise around with a lot of tabs going at once. Again, it does take some getting use to. Give it some time, and I think you’d agree that it’s a very powerful way to use tabs. In addition to this, you can use a feature called workspaces. This allows you to save your browsing sessions as individual sets. Real power surfers should enjoy using this feature.
• “The old user agent switcheroo”: As a Mac user, there have probably been times when you have visited a website, and you’ve seen some kind of warning that reads something like this: “Our website has been optimized for Internet Explorer. Please visit us with a proper browser”. Sometimes, these little messages are cute and friendly, and sometimes, not so. On occasion, you might have even come across a site that refuses to load at all. There are still a few such sites out there, but their numbers are shrinking, thankfully. Omniweb has the ability to fake out such sites, to make such sites believe that you are indeed using another browser. Safari also has this ability, but in order to use it, you must activate the debug menu, (now called the develop menu, in Safari 3.1). With omniweb, this feature is easily accessed, through site preferences. An example:
Here, I’ve set site preferences to ID my browser as Internet Explorer 7.0, for this particular website. Very simple to use, and you don’t need to quit the application, activate a hidden menu, and re-launch the application to use it.
• Bookmarks, cookie management, and History: While Safari has very good bookmark management, Omniweb takes it a little bit further. You can really go to town on managing your bookmarks with Omniweb. This is something that should make big bookmark collectors very happy. Cookie management is nicely done. When you see the cookie icon in the the status bar, just click on it, and a nicely made menu will drop down, showing all the cookies for that particular site, and their status. (Rejected, accepted, or temporary) Again, other browsers have this but it is frequently buried, and sometimes difficult to read. Omniweb takes it a little bit better. The browsing history is very searchable, and highly detailed.
• Snap-Back: One of the most useful features on Safari, is the snap-back button. The little orange button in the Google search window is frequently a godsend when you are doing intense google searching. When I first started using Omniweb, I was a little disappointed that it did not have this feature. Until,,,I found out that it does. Snap-back in Omniweb is under the history menu. When you want to mark a page to snap-back to, such as a google search, you select “mark page”. To return, or “snap back” to your marked page, you simply select “go to previous mark”.
Like many OS X native applications, Omniweb has a fully customizable toolbar. Besides selecting page marking from the history menu, you have the option of dragging these buttons to the toolbar. Placing them right next to the Google window gives you your snap-back feature. But, a single snap-back button would be more welcome, I think.
• One more thing: Ever visit a blog area or forum, and find the windows for typing text are just a tad to small? Well, Omniweb has an answer for this: When you first move your cursor into a text window and click there, an odd looking icon appears in the status bar. Curious? So was I. I clicked it, and a nice, bigger text window dropped from the smaller one, in OS X drop-sheet style. And you can make it even bigger. Just type your text here, close it, and there will be you text, all nice arranged in the web pages smaller window. Thanks to those who thought of this feature.
• Areas where the product needs improvement:
-The implementation of snap-back is a little confusing. Safari has the edge here. A snap-back button, located in the Google search window, or right next to it, would be welcome.
-The small icons that appear in the status bar, (Cookie, RSS feeds, etc.) in the bottom right hand corner, need to be different colors so they’ll stand out better.
To be sure, there is a learning curve with Omniweb, same as all other browsers. You have lots of tools to work with here, and you’ll probably need to play with some settings, to find what works best for you. For example, I had to do some trial and error with the pop-up blocker, before deciding that setting it to “Block pop-up windows: only when not requested” worked best for me.
So now, we get right down to it. In a world of free browsers, is Omniweb worth your $14.95? Well to me, it is well worth it. The security features that you can setup for each individual website, plus the great cookie management and searchable history is indeed money well spent. And, as I mentioned above, these features are built right into the application. There is no need for third-party extensions or add-ons. The price of $14.95 is very fair for this product. How many commercial applications are sold at this price point today?
Of course, the fact that I enjoy using it doesn’t make it right for everyone, so here is what I’d suggest: Try before you buy. Omnigroup’s try out policy is easy to live with. Download Omniweb version 5.7, and give it a shot. I think you’ll be pleased. You may even find yourself taking the Safari icon off your dock.
Back in May of ‘04, I wrote about why I felt that it was time for Apple Computer to finally introduce a two-button mouse for the Mac. As most folks know by now, they finally did just that. The Apple “Mighty Mouse” retails for $49.99 (hard-wired version) at the Apple store. I’ve tried it, several times in fact, at my local Apple stores in Burlington, MA. Hmmm,,, Sorry but no thanks. That little track ball is difficult to control, and the buttons? I just cannot seem to get them to feel right. I know, I know; it must be me. Consider it said.
At the moment, my mouse of choice is the Kensington optical Pilot Mouse. Now, this is what I call a fistful of mouse. It’s good sized, and has nice rubber grips on the sides. The scroll wheel is pretty precise, when I’m not using my Griffin Powermate. (Damn, those things are addictive!) This is what a mouse should be, in my own strange opinion. If Apple’s mouse works for you, well, knock yourself out.
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Ok folks, gather up your flame throwers, and start boiling the oil. I’m about to to say some things which will certainly cheese off some of you. Let me explain some some things first: I consider myself to be a hard-core Mac user, and I don’t apologize for this. You shouldn’t either. Now, here at home, I proudly use my TiBook, sitting up on its Griffin iCurve stand. I run it just like a full size desktop, with an Apple keyboard and cordless mouse. All fine and dandy, yes? Hey, it works for me. But on the job? My main machine is a Sawtooth G4, with a Dell seventeen-inch LCD monitor connected to it. And you know something? I like it just fine.
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Some Time ago, I was in the Apple store at the North Shore Mall, in Peabody, MA. I’ve spent a fair amount of time there, and a good wad of cash as well. What can I say, I like the place. Anyway, while playing with a new G4, (yes, this did take place some time ago, almost a year, in fact.) this young couple came in, with that “first time here, and we have no clue” look. The young woman had the “big hair” look of a Camaro driver, and the young man, (husband or boyfriend, presumably) looked as though he had a more intimate relationship with Budweiser than with this young woman. No matter, they headed right over to the G4 next to me, and stared at it.
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The Whacky World of Job Interviews.
“Meet the new Boss. Same as the old Boss.”– The Who.
Many are the days I feel pretty darn lucky. You see, I work as a technician in the technology sector, and I’m still employed. These days, that almost give me exalted status. I’ve been with my present employer for seven years now, and it all seems stable, at least for the moment. It could change, with little or no notice. I’m all too aware of that nasty little fact. But, I have not always been this fortunate. I have been laid off many times over the past twenty-five years, and for seventeen months, from June of ’91 until November of ‘92; I was totally out of work, along with many others. Basically, it sucked. Unemployment compensation barely covers the living expenses of even the lowest paid wage earners here in Massachusetts. It gets to a point where you begin to wonder if you are going to work again or not. Your unemployment compensation benefits run out, and you begin to look at things like retail store jobs with envy. Some people who find themselves out of work try to pursue dreams, such as starting their own business. If you think you can do it, emotionally and physically, I say more power to you, but try to be objective about it before taking the plunge. Some people change careers altogether. I once knew a man with the almighty Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, who became very fed up with the entire high tech game. He went into the hotel management field. He had the right personality for that line of work, so I would guess he’s happier, wherever life has taken him.
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Welcome To Geezer City!
(Where Geezers Are State of the Art.)
There comes a time in every columnist’s life when you realize that you are indeed getting older, a time when you feel you must “vent” just like your father or grandfather did before you. If you are a “baby boomer”, like myself and my compatriots, then maybe you remember your grandfather harping about how “bread used to be five cents a loaf”, and how ‘we didn’t have any of that fancy …….” you fill in the rest. No doubt, you also had a father, or perhaps an uncle, who “walked sixteen miles to school in raging snowstorms”. Of course, you knew right away that dad, or uncle was full of horse manure, but you had to play along. Besides that, grandma told you the truth later, when dad or uncle were well out of audible range.
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“On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce “Macintosh”, and you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like “1984”.
-Closing line from Apple’s famous “1984” commercial, which starred Anya Major, and which was directed by Ridley Scott.
With the twentieth anniversary of the Macintosh upon us, I felt that this would be an appropriate time to tell “my story”, of how I came to be such a fan of this computing platform. Heck, everyone has stories, right?
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“I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!”– “Howard Beele” played by actor Peter Finch, in the classic movie “Network”.
Do you have an idiot warning system? I’ll bet you do, but don’t realize it. Let me tell you how mine is set up, and how I use it, with this “purely hypothetical situation”. I go into a chain drug store on a typical Saturday afternoon. I just need a few things, such as razor blades, toothpaste, some over-the-counter painkillers, (I’m a Tylenol man) and perhaps the latest issue of MacAddict or Macworld. I approach the lines at the register. Very quickly, I scan the people waiting in line in front of me. Most of the customers are male, and most are buying the same stuff. They either have their cash out already, or wallets at the ready.
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“There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life.” – Frank Zappa
I hate to admit it, but I do watch some television. I love a good episode of “CSI Miami”. I think David Caruso is a fine actor, and the character he plays, Horatio Caine, is “cool”. Why do I think this? Well, Horatio gets the bad guys, just by using his brain. He is not a big, brawny guy. He does not use one-line zingers. He doesn’t get involved in high-speed chases where fruit stands get knocked over, nor does he throw guys onto the hoods of cars. In fact, I cannot recall any scene where Horatio even pulls out his gun. No, He just uses his gray cells. That, and that great, authoritative speaking voice. You know he’s a man who means business. (Side note: Mr. Caruso, on the outside chance you’re reading this, Excellent work!)
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(What’s the real price of cheap consumer electronics?)
“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.”
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
I was going to write about something else, but a recent experience made a little bell go off in my head. Yep, I was searching for something to write about, and after what happened to me on a Sunday evening a few weeks back, I knew I had a better topic. I had spent my day doing some serious bicycling, and had finished by consuming an entire pizza and watching some of my favorite X-Files episodes, via the wonders of DVD technology. (Don’t you non-bicycle people wish you were one of us? Then you could put away the food the way we do, and still wear the Levi’s from ten years ago. Wink-Wink.)
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I received the announcement a week ahead of time, along with some other spam I regularly receive. Let me say that it’s a damn good thing I check that junk mail box, just in case. The letter was colorful, and straight to the point, as mail from Apple tends to be.
It told me that the newest Apple Store would open at the Chestnut Hill Mall, on Saturday, June 14th, at ten AM. In all these years of being a Mac fan, I had yet to attend one of their retail store grand openings, so since this mall is only a few miles away from my residence, I simply figured, “Why not?”
Let me explain a few things: I don’t like shopping malls. I don’t like the way people behave in parking lots at shopping malls. I’ve used the expression “Shopping Mall Nation” a few times, and I don’t mean it kindly. The Chestnut Hill Mall is located in Newton Massachusetts. Newton is a very rich, snobbish suburb, and the Chestnut Hill area is among the most snobbish, elitist, and arrogant parts of this city, which is just outside Boston. But, Apple chose to expand their retail operation by putting a new store here, and it’s only a few miles away, so I must say, “Thanks Steve”. (I just hope the rent on this prime retail space is not going to soak all the profit potential. ) So, for this occasion, I broke one of my own personal rules, and went to the mall. (Hey look, they’re my rules, and I can break them, OK? )
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Here in the Northeast, we have a chain of drug stores called “CVS”. (I think it stands for “Consumer Value Stores’.) It’s one of these stores where they have a prescription drug counter, but they sell darn near everything else besides. These types of stores proliferated, starting in the 1960′s, as a way to circumvent Massachusetts’ rather archaic blue laws. This is to say that because CVS, and others like them, had a prescription drug counter; they could open on Sunday, whereas other stores were prohibited from doing so. I know that sounds like an alien concept to you west-coasters, but remember, the east coast states have been here since colonial times, and there are many laws on the books which go back to the times of the puritans. (If you think the government of Saudi Arabia is nasty for religious repression, you may want to bone up on what was done in the name of religion right here, only a few hundred years ago.)
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iPod 15GB
Company: Apple Computer, Inc.
Price: $399.00
http://www.apple.com
This 15 Gig iPod review is just like all the others you have read. It can be summed up in two words: Buy One!
I saw my first iPod about a week after it was introduced. It was at a seminar on OS X Server and someone in the audience had one. I got to hold it for about 10 seconds. Techno-Lust. It must be what Segway owners go through everyday. We all gathered around this new marvel from Apple.
I have had serious misgivings about the iPod. I was worried about the disk size, the battery life, the durability and sticking ear-buds in my ear. When I played with them at the Apple store, the interface seemed clumsy, and I never liked the squared corners. Wow, did I miss the big picture! The price is a killer, but it is worth every penny.
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The Sunday Boston Globe includes a really nice magazine, called, interestingly enough, the Boston Globe Magazine. So, on the first day in months when it has been warm and nice outside, I was stuck inside my apartment. With a very nasty head cold. I always seem to get the “deluxe” variety, complete with chills, totally blocked sinuses, and a feeling that I have just been put through a wringer. Swell, just freakin swell. You know these people, who, when they have a head cold, dance and twirl about, saying “Oh, it’s just a head cold! I plan on going dancing tonight!” They must be on some wicked good cough syrup. Jeesh, I hate those people, but I wish they would share some of that cough syrup with me.
So, I read through the magazine, and came across something toward the back, which runs every year at this time. It’s all the ads for various summer camps, and some of these ads are hilarious. For Suburban mommies who are convinced that their little bundles of joy are the next Venus Williams or Anna Kournikova, there are plenty of Tennis Camps. For aging jock dads, convinced that their McDonalds fed sons are destined for a spot on a big NHL team, or the New York Yankees, there are sports camps galore, always bearing the name of a well-known sports figure. Heh, if the kids who attend these camps are lucky, the famous sports figure will make one appearance, and maybe grant a few autographs, if he’s in a good mood, and if his contract demands have all been met, and (Most important) if his blonde bimbo is not “getting too impatient” while she waits in the Corvette.
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Anyone who can’t use a slide rule is a cultural illiterate,
and should not be allowed to vote. –Robert A. Heinlein
Like most of you, I have several hobbies to keep myself amused and busy, during the times when I am not working to pay the bills. Some of my hobbies are pretty standard (if anything can really be called standard any more.) As I have mentioned in a few columns, I love to bike ride. This is a sport and hobby combined. If I am not riding, I am perusing the latest bicycle catalogs that stuff my mailbox, or doing some “wrenching”, or lurking about the website of my favorite shop, which is a fine website indeed. For interested parties, its Harris Cyclery. And yes, they’ll ship parts, tools, complete bicycles, and pretty much anything you want to almost anywhere in the civilized world. It’s arguable, but I think they have what is possibly the finest bike shop in the world.
Taunting “The Happy Fun Ball”.
(And Other Strange things to do when it’s just to damn cold for Anything Else.)
“The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don’t have it.”
- George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
“Beam Me up Scotty, there’s no intelligent life here”.
- Bumper Sticker.
It’s cold outside. Much too cold for any kind of outdoor activity. My fixed gear bicycle is leaning against a wall. It wants to go for a ride, and so do I. Alas, it’s just too cold. (If you are a real “Hard Core” cyclist, and you can handle riding in this cold, I salute you.) This is the type of cold that makes me seriously consider heading to the town of Needles, California. Oh I know, it gets way too hot from about June on. A hundred and twenty degrees? Well, as long as I have plenty of chilled beverages to consume, I’m good for it, really.
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I need to get something straight with you, my readers. (Both of you.) I am not much of a “winter person”. In fact, I feel that at this point, I can make the judgment that winter sucks, badly. Between the snow, ice, bone-numbing cold, and dark mornings that make me think I live on the dark side of the moon; I’ll take summer any time. (Heat? Humidity? Bring it on!) Now, I must admit that as a kid, I loved winter. Yes indeed, joy was listening to the “No School” announcements on the radio, being read by a stern voiced announcer, and hearing the name of your town read. This was followed by uncontrolled yelps of joy. Sadly, those years are short-lived. As an adult, you just have to deal with the winter nasties. Employers in New England rarely call off work shifts. If you work anyplace on a production floor, you have probably heard the “We’ll be here, no matter how much it snows, and we expect you here, at your workstation, on time” speech from a steel-eyed supervisor, at least once. (Some sort of ego thing, apparently. And salaried, office people never get that speech, do they?)
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“At times, it becomes necessary
to restate the obvious.” George Orwell.
It was just about a year ago, when I first saw the commercial on the boob tube. It was late at night, and I was watching a special presentation” of the classic movie “Doctor Zhivago”, one of the few movies ever made which appeals to both men and women. It was getting pretty late, after eleven in fact. (Late for an aging nerd like myself). The commercial began with two young women I’ll describe as “Hauntingly Beautiful”, and they were playing a great piece of classical music on violins. The picture cut quickly to a third young woman, and then a fourth, also playing up a storm of music on violins. The sound quality of this TV commercial was stirring and rich, not just noisy like most of them. It was an ad for something called “Raymond Weil Watches”, and the women playing the violins were just incredible. I found myself wanting to see the ad again, not because I wanted to learn about Raymond Weil Watches, but because I wanted to see more of those violin-playing ladies. I was not disappointed. The ad ran again before the end of the movie.
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Since it is now “Halloween Time”, I have decided to write about something that I think is, in a word, scary. In fact, it’s scaring the hell out of me. What could it possibly be? Windows XP? No, that is annoying for sure, but scary? No. Could it be the “Bad Fad which just won’t go away”, better known as Britney Spears? No, she’s scary, but not that scary. Is it the thought that somewhere, maybe somewhere close by, “The Captain And Tennille” or “The Starland Vocal Band” could be plotting some sort of comeback? Well, that’s really a horrible thought, but no. So what do I find so scary?
No one is making good, cheesy, “Monster Movies” any more!
It’s true. It seems the folks in Hollywood have all-but-forgotten this fine art. I grew up watching and loving Monster movies and many friends and coworkers consider me to be something of an “expert”. (This is to say that I’m the guy they come to with such questions as who was in this movie, of that one, and what was the deal with the thing with the bug-eyes. Hey, it’s a dirty job, but I do it proudly.) There used to be lots of Monster movies being made and shown at any given time, but for some mysterious reason, or reasons, it just isn’t happening much today. Arguably, the last good Monster Movie was “Anaconda”, which played in the summer of 1997.
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I need to explain a few things: First, I am not what you would consider a “political person”. Oh sure, I care about who gets elected to which public office and all, but aside from that, I find the entire thing to be something of a snoozer. Secondly, I am not into “political parties”. I am registered to vote and all, as an “independent”. (This is called “un-enrolled” here in the Bay state.) I don’t like political parties. In fact, I think it is time for the entire party system to be tossed in the garbage disposal of history. Boy, could you imagine how efficient everything would run, if there were no constant bickering just because Senator X is a Republican, and Senator Y is a Democrat? No “party whips” (that always sounds kinky to me), and none of this committee garbage. Talk about efficiency to the max. Legislative process, the way it was meant to be.
Third, I promised myself, and my readers, (Both of Them!) that I would not write about the technical side of Mac ownership, or do product reviews, (There are plenty of good, well-qualified people doing that already), or politics. My reasoning is that if you want a political column; just pick up any major market newspaper on any given weekday. Alas, I must break that promise, after watching what I saw on the evening of Thursday, September fifth, on the major market Boston TV stations.
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